


Matsuoka

by isuilde



Category: Free!
Genre: Failed attempt at humor, Gou is your best girl, M/M, Unbeta-ed, fluff probably, misunderstandings that is like a trainwreck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-13
Updated: 2015-07-13
Packaged: 2018-04-09 04:42:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4334276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isuilde/pseuds/isuilde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where everyone misunderstands about who Makoto is dating.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Matsuoka

**Author's Note:**

  * For [haL_1](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=haL_1).



> About a month ago I bugged [teletou](http://archiveofourown.org/users/teletou/pseuds/teletou) with ridiculous headcanons and bounce ideas, and well, here it is, I guess, the super stupid whole thing. It’s supposed to be funny. It’s probably not. I’m sorry.
> 
> Also sorry in advance that my writing gets kinda stilted here; I'm still trying to get back into the groove but it's been very very slow going orz.

So here is the situation: Makoto has been living in Tokyo for roughly one year and two months, and is doing pretty good with his long-distance relationship with Rin, who is chasing his Olympic dream far down in Australia and is getting largely successful and popular as some sort of sports celebrity even in Japan, when Rin’s beloved younger sister Gou manages to get into the same university as Makoto is in, and moves to Tokyo.

Of course Makoto is happy for her—Gou is in his inner-circle, Gou is a great friend, Gou is Rin’s younger sister. And frankly, it’s Rin who, in one of their Skype calls, directly asks Makoto to take care of Gou while she’s off all on her own in Tokyo, because one: they’re in the same university, and two: they actually end up in the same neighborhood anyway. Not that Makoto wouldn’t keep an eye out for Gou without Rin asking; Gou is kind of like a younger sister to him, too, after all, but that’s not the point. The point is, Makoto is happy for her.

He fetches Gou up from the airport, takes her out for dinner with Haruka (or at Haruka’s, depending on whether or not Haruka is in the mood of cooking anything other than mackerel), and makes sure to check on her at least once a day because he’s a natural worrier. Unfounded worry, of course, because Gou is a great and capable girl who seems to settle down in mere weeks without much of a fuss, making friends left and right as she goes on with her first half of semester in university.

And then Haruka begins to travel out of Tokyo a lot for competitions, and both Makoto and Gou find themselves standing in the middle of a kitchen, staring at eggs exploding in the microwave, and laughing endlessly because apparently they both really suck at cooking. Makoto takes a photo of them both in the kitchen, flour and oil and eggshells and questionable mixtures everywhere, and sends them to Rin and Haruka.

And with that, Makoto laughingly ushers Gou to the bathroom to clean up, and lends her his jacket to wear before they both go out to find proper things to eat for dinner.

**\-----o0o-----**

The point is, Gou becomes a normal addition to the life of Tachibana Makoto as well as one of his best friends because they stick together. Haruka’s out of town a whole lot, but when he’s in Tokyo to be normal university students, the force of Makoto and Gou combination is usually able to drag him out of his apartment’s bathtub and out doing other mundane things like grocery shopping or sightseeing.

Granted, when they do grocery shopping together, Haruka usually stubbornly stays close to the seafood section.

“It’s a hard choice,” Haruka says, looking back and forth at the two seemingly identical pieces of mackerel, frowning. Makoto catches Gou sending longing looks to the perfectly good, thirty percent off salmon close by, and pats her on the back sympathetically. Obviously, Haruka isn’t going to choose salmon over mackerels.

“Haruka-senpai,” Gou says, voice taking a complaining tone. “How much longer—“

“It’s,” Haruka says, pressure in each syllable. “A hard choice.”

Makoto chuckles. “Well, we’re going to pick up some sweets and snacks then, and we’ll come back here after. Don’t go anywhere, okay, Haru?”

Haruka’s head dips ever-so-slightly, attention never wavering from the mackerels, and Makoto tugs Gou’s arm towards the snacks section. Picking up snacks doesn’t usually take them long—Makoto likes sweets so it’s either puddings or cookies, Haruka goes for seafood-flavored chips most of the times, and Gou sticks to either Pocky or one of the Meiji chocolates. Sometimes Makoto grabs a few cans of beer as well—nothing too strong, because Gou needs to go back to her apartment before midnight and Makoto usually walks her off.

Gou perks up when they go past the beer aisle, pointing at one of the lines before the cashiers. “Makoto-senpai, isn’t that your friend?”

Makoto turns, recognizing one of the boys in his year, one of the ones he’s grown rather close to in the past year: black sleek hair, always with one earbud plugging his ear, and a visible beauty mark on the corner of his left eyebrow—“Oh,” Makoto says, happily, and calls out, “Kuroda!”

His friend looks around for a second, before their eyes meet, and Makoto watches his friend look surprised for a second, before he answers Makoto with a wave. Makoto waves back, but doesn’t linger because Gou is tugging him towards the dairy section.

“We should do a barbecue night,” Gou tells him absently as they browse through the cheese products selection. “Oniichan’s coming to visit next week, right?”

Makoto hums in agreement. “I can ask the landlord if we could borrow the backyard. As long as we don’t get too rowdy, she wouldn’t mind.” And then, because he only just remembered that Gou’s only been in Tokyo for a few months, he adds, “Do you have a spare futon for Rin, Gou? I can lend one, if you don’t—“

Gou throws him a ridiculous look. “What are you talking about, Oniichan is staying at your place.”

“Eh? He didn’t… say anything about…it…” oh, he could feel the heat climbing up his face, fast. Gou snorts openly at him, elbowing him on the side.

“Well, he’s definitely not planning to stay at mine, considering he hasn’t asked me to find a spare futon.” She grins up at Makoto, teasing. “And anyway, even if he stays at mine, he’d probably just spend the night at your place.”

“Gou-chan—“ Makoto whines, feeling the the tip of his ears burn, and Gou merrily laughs.

“Make sure to be safe~!”

She dances out of the way when he swats at her.

**\-----o0o-----**

“Makoto-senpai,” Gou whines, eyes pleading wide like a puppy, lower lip trembling. “Please please please pleeeeaseeee—“

He scratches the back of his head, glancing back at the stack of notes he needs to read tonight for tomorrow’s quiz. “Gou-chan, I’d like to, really, but—“

“Just this once! I know this movie is lame, and I know you prefer western movies and you watch chick-flicks because Oniichan loves them—“

“Hey,” Makoto protests feebly. “Rin picks very good movies, too—“

“—and I wouldn’t even watch this movie because it’s lame, it really is, even Maaya refuses to watch it with me, but I don’t want to go alone and I got premiere tickets and Makoto-senpai, it has  _Ikuta Touma_.”

Right. Makoto has learned not to get in the way between girls (and boys, too) and their idols.

**\-----o0o-----**

“Did you,” Rin says, mocking offense, eyes bright and amused. “Ditch a skype English study session with me to go watch a movie with my sister?”

Makoto turns halfway to accept a steaming cup of coffee from Gou, who hums lightly as she returns to raiding Makoto’s fridge. “It has Ikuta Touma,” he tells Rin by way of explanation, and hides his smile behind his cup as he watches Rin’s eyebrows go high.

“Ikuta Touma? Really, Gou?”

“He doesn’t seem to be her type, right?” Makoto adds, grinning. “Not—uhh, buff enough.”

“What he lacks in muscles,” Gou turns to them menacingly, eyes narrowed and threatening, one hand on cocked hip. It’s great. “He makes up in his face, personality, and acting capability. He’s  _awesome_.”

Makoto chuckles. “Of course he is.”

“And no one is perfect,” Rin says. Gou flicks a straw at the general direction of Makoto’s laptop, hitting the screen with a mute thump. And because Rin is a good brother, he says anyway, “Ow.”

“Serves you right,” Gou says, sticking her nose up high, and turns back to the fridge.

Makoto tries very hard not to laugh into his scalding hot coffee.

**\-----o0o-----**

The thing is, Haruka sometimes makes bentou boxes.

It usually happens when he doesn’t have morning classes, and sometimes he cooks too much that he packs it up and give it to either Makoto or Gou or both. And it just so happens that Makoto’s already gone to campus when Haruka goes out, which means he has no choice but to drop them by Gou’s apartment for her to take to the university.

“Thank you, Haruka-senpai!” Gou gushes, eyes bright at the prospect of not having to spend money for lunch but still getting to eat proper meal. “One for Makoto-senpai, right? I’ll make sure to deliver it before lunch break.”

“He said he has a group project he’s doing at the student hall,” Haruka says, straightening his backpack. “I’ll leave it to you then.”

Gou gets orders, Gou delivers. She finds Makoto with a bunch of his friends in the students hall, in the midst of a debate that seems to be going hotter. Makoto is typing away on his laptop, probably taking notes of ideas that his friends is bouncing at one another, but when Gou draws near, he looks up and beams. “Gou-chan!”

The heated discussion is paused for a moment, as everyone turns to look up at Gou. She grins, drops the bentou box on Makoto’s side, and pats him on the shoulder. “Lunch. Good luck, Makoto-senpai.”

Makoto’s smile grows. “Thank you. Go, you’re running late, aren’t you?”

She gives him a salute and skips away.

**\-----o0o-----**

True to Gou’s words, Rin does ask to stay at Makoto’s place for the whole week he’d be in Tokyo. Makoto gets a lot of smug grins directed at him whenever he sees Gou afterwards, but that’s okay, because Rin is staying at his place for a week.

So maybe he gets nervous a little. So maybe he goes all out and cleans up his whole apartment, fussing over the tiniest bit of dust bunny, arranging and rearranging the bookshelf, scrubbing the toilet and the bath and the whole kitchen. So maybe he frets over the contents of his fridge and his kitchen cabinets, over whether or not his clippings of newspaper and magazine articles of Rin would be creepy if Rin finds out, over how much of Rin’s favorite brand of coffee and snacks he has to stock up, over the train schedule and the route he needs to take to Narita to pick Rin up. Haruka helps him with most of everything, but he draws the line when Makoto, red to the tips of his ears, starts fretting over which brand of lube and condom he should stock up because Rin’s visit is, after all, a special occassion.

So he goes to Gou, who groans exasperatedly at him with the slightest tint of red across her cheeks, which is nothing compared to how Makoto’s face is literally a bloated tomato. But it’s okay, too, because Gou goes with him to the drug store anyway, imparts various wisdoms about different brands of condoms and lubes (and really, Makoto does not want to ask where Gou gets all these information), and when they bump into one of Makoto’s friends, he could only offer them a sheepish look before Gou drags him out of the store.

He didn’t even know cherry blossom-scented lube exists before this particular journey.

**\-----o0o----**

Rin’s smile is still as blinding as the brightest Iwatobi summer sun, when Makoto picks him up at the airport.

He whispers a shy “I miss you,” against Rin’s ear, when Rin gives him a rather manly hug under the echo of flight announcements over their heads. Rin answers with a peck on his lips, much later when they’re joining Tokyo’s evening rush hour on the train, where everyone has their eyes closed or down on books or phones. Makoto grins, somehow thrilled, and lets the tips of Rin’s fingers catching his own until they have to get off the train.

Haruka catches them on the north gate of the station, flashing Rin a small smile before Rin pulls him into a one-armed hug. “It’s been a while, Rin.”

“I heard about you breaking records,” Rin says, the slightest tone of giddiness making its way into his voice. “Getting into top shape for the upcoming competitions, huh?”

Haruka shrugs. “Sousuke mocks me if I don’t break records, so.” 

Gou shows up in Makoto’s apartment five minutes after Rin brings his stuff into Makoto’s room. He travels light, but there’s a full handbag of souvenirs and presents he’d brought along, and Gou hugs him like it’s Christmas morning, plants him a wet kiss on the cheek when she finds an Australian sports magazine with a muscular guy posing on the cover. They have dinner and drinks some, and when the clock strikes twelve Makoto insists to walk Gou and Haruka off, because Rin should take a shower and get some rest.

“Get some rest,” Gou mimicks, much later when the two of them are walking down the long path towards her apartments three blocks away. She shoots him a dirty smile, eyes dancing. “Makoto-senpai, you already have a plan for tonight, don’t you?”

Makoto flushes beet red. “Gou-chan.”

“Aw, don’t be mad,” she giggles, then reaches down her bag to pull out an envelope. “Here. Two tickets to that Evangelion all-nighter event tomorrow, at Shinjuku CinemArt.”

Makoto’s eyes widen. “You got them? Aren’t they—but lotteries! Gou-chan how do you—“

“Because I’m just that good,” she gives him a smug smile, one that softens a second later. “It’s rare that Oniichan could come visit when it’s not holiday season, so you two should make the best out of it, okay? Don’t worry about paying me back, I’ll buy something out of Oniichan’s credit card.”

Makoto eyes her reverently. “Gou-chan…”

“And please,” Gou adds, in the most exasperated tone. “Spare me the details of your sex life.”

Really, Makoto thinks, it’s justifiable when he glomps Gou out of gratitude, because lottery ticket events are so hard to get and Rin would _love_ this.

**\-----o0o-----**

“I’m home,” Makoto calls out, out of habit, when he comes back from his lessons the next day.

There’s something that Makoto never realizes he wants, so badly, when he sees Rin sprawled on the couch, holding a book up inches above his face, half-distracted as he turns his head towards Makoto, and says, “Oh, welcome home.”

It makes something warm settles comfortable somewhere inside his chest, and Makoto smiles, smiles so wide his cheeks starts hurting, and sets out to join Rin on the sofa.

**\-----o0o------**

They go to the all-nighter viewing of Evangelion in Shinjuku.

It’s nice. They share a huge tub of popcorn and soda, and absently play with each other’s fingers in the darkness of the cinema as they get engrossed in watching episode after episode played.  At one point, Rin actually sags to his seat and leans against Makoto’s side, his arm a welcomed warmth and familiarity, and Makoto actually regrets a tiny little bit that he goes with Rin for this event, because he ends up only paying attention to 80% of the viewing.

Just a tiny little bit. Because as they exit the cinema in the wee hours of morning and gets to the karaoke place, discussing the entire viewing with Rin is certainly making up for that tiny bit of regret.

They leave the karaoke place around five o’clock, catches one of the earliest trains and get back home to collapse on the bed. Makoto skips his morning classes, and only wakes up for his afternoon ones because Rin wakes him up with a blowjob (and consequently gets him late for his classes because they both get carried away, but it’s been _months_ , you can’t blame them).

So he gets to his afternoon class, still half-dazed with the memory of Rin’s hair tickling his thigh, and Kuroda taps him on the back. “Oi, Tachibana. Your morning class notes.”

Makoto blinks, turns halfway around to accept the papers Kuroda gives him. “Thank you so much! I’ll treat you to coffee later?”

Kuroda stares at him in amusement. “Nah. I’d skip morning class too if I were you. You lucky bastard, getting a redhead.”

“Well, that’s—“ Makoto laughs sheepishly, but then chokes on air and gapes at Kuroda because _what?!_ Did somebody catch him with Rin last night? Did someone see them, fingers twined as they leave the cinema and hurrying down one of Shinjuku’s deserted alleys?

Kuroda just grins. “Caught you at the movies.”

“Oh my god,” Makoto hears himself say, and of course, that’s when the Professor strides into the room, voice rising to announce that they’re going to have a surprise quiz before the lesson starts today, and Makoto has to turn away from Kuroda, even if his mind is still racing.

It’s not like he minds being outed—the prospect scares him a little, true, knowing the society he lives in, but he’d be fine, he could handle it (maybe), it’s not like his family is going to find out straight away before he’s ready. But Rin—Rin who’s working so hard to chase his Olympic dream,who’s paved his way to be able to support both his mother and Gou, who has so much to lose—

If this gets out, he’d jeopardize Rin’s career.

Makoto grips his phone hard, and, shakily, begins to fire off texts to Rin’s phone.

**\-----o0o------**

“Shit,” Rin says, a certain panicked edge in his voice, and Haruka looks up.

“What is it?”

“…Makoto said one of his friends might have caught us at the cinema together yesterday.” Rin’s eyes narrowed, the taut of his eyebrows spelling worry. “They commented about his ‘redhead’, and—fuck. That’s not good, that’s—“

Haruka stays silent for a moment, the sketch in his hand forgotten. “Someone found out?”

Rin throws him a worried glance. “Most likely. Shit, what are we going to do—it never ends well, this kind of thing. When people start making comments about it—Makoto would be bullied or something, oh fuck, I probably shouldn’t have come visit at all—“

Haruka puts his pencil down, stares at Rin steadily for a few moments, thoughtful. “Maybe they mistook other people for you both. It’s not certain.”

Rin tosses him his phone. “Read for yourself.”

Haruka sighs, reads the last five exchanges of texts between Makoto and Rin: ones from Makoto panicking and then detailing the comments his friend made, and ones from Rin fretting and trying to subtly ask if his friend is threatening Makoto. He pauses to remember the bunch of guys he knows Makoto is hanging out with, tries to remember if any of them that he’d meet and hang out with several times would be the type to threaten Makoto over homophobia, and comes up with a blank.

But— _redhead_.

“—and he’s worrying if this would jeopardize my career, like—doesn’t that sound stupid to you? He should worry about himself first, honestly, no one in the swimming world would care if they knew I’m into guys, as long as I keep up with my performance no one could give me shit about it! It’s—I’m worried he’d be bullied, Haru, you know how it is here, and if he’s being bullied Makoto would probably not tell us because he’d probably think he’d bother us—“

“Hmm,” Haruka says, thoughtful, and even as he listens to Rin’s rant, he fires off a text using Rin’s phone.

_You should ask them._

After all, his phone is somewhere out of his arm reach, and getting up is troublesome. Makoto would know it’s from him, anyway. 

**\-----o0o-----**

“So,” Makoto says when the class finally ends, conversationally, to where Kuroda is now chatting with several other of their friends. “Uh, I think there might be an understanding here, Kuroda.”

Kuroda flashes him a grin. “Oh come on, Tachibana. About your redhead, right?”

“That’s not—“ Makoto shifts uncomfortably. “I don’t—uhh, wh-what redhead do you mean anyway?”

“The feisty-looking redhead,” another one, Yamamoto, pipes up, wiggling his eyebrows. He gestures to the rest of their friends. “All of us knows anyway, you don’t have to keep it a secret.”

“Yeah,” Kuroda nods, and this time his voice holds a teasing note as he elbows Makoto on the side good-naturedly. “You guys looked so lovey-dovey, ugh. Lucky bastard.”

Makoto flushes. Which probably doesn’t help his cause. “It’s—it’s really not like that! We’re just really, really good friends since high school, and—“

“Ah-haaa,” Tanaka leers at him. “So you don’t mind if one of us go for Matsuoka?”

“What? No?!” He gets snickers and snorts for his troubles, and sighs. He rubs his nape, wills the heat burning his cheeks to the tips of his ears to fade, and sheepishly looks at his friends. “Um, so. So you guys.. don’t mind? Me and…”

“Matsuoka?” Kuroda grins. “Yeah, good for you, man.”

“Oh,” something in his chest gives way to relief, and some sort of warmth he doesn’t know he holds for these guys. “That’s—that means a lot, actually. Thank you, everyone.” He fidgets, offers a tentative smile. “But, uhhh—there are circumstances so… please don’t tell anyone?”

“Nah,” Tanaka slings an arm around his shoulders, grinning wide. “We won’t if you don’t want to, don’t worry. You’re making this too big of a deal, Tachibana—are you crying?!”

Makoto says he isn’t, but he doesn’t mention that the back of his eyes burns, either.

**\-----o0o-----**

When Makoto tells Haruka and Rin about his friends, Rin rewards him with a very long, relieved hug, and Haruka smiles and tells him, “I’m glad.”

He is not sure he’s still glad an hour later, when Rin drags him out to the closest supermarket to buy more meat, and he just happens to bump into Kuroda and Tanaka on the seafood section as Rin leaves towards the beer aisles.

“Oh,” Kuroda says, tapping him on the shoulder brightly with a friendly grin. “Nanase, it’s been a while. Tachibana says you’re going out for competitions a lot. Sounds like you’re doing great.”

Haruka nods, then turns towards the mackerels, trying to remember how much he has left stocked at home, and if he should buy some more today. “It was a busy season.”

“That’s your friend?” Tanaka head-gestures towards where Rin had disappeared. “Who’s that?”

Haruka blinks, confused, and turns to make sure that they really are looking at Rin. They are. He keeps his voice carefully neutral, despite something itching on the back of his mind. “Matsuoka Rin.”

Kuroda and Tanaka exchanges surprised looks.

“Wow, shit,” Kuroda laughs, sounding almost impressed. “Tachibana is dating his friend’s little sister? I didn’t know he had it in him!”

Somewhere in the back of his mind, the Haruka that never was whispers to the edge of his mind: _Shit_.

**\-----o0o-----**

Sousuke laughs at him for five minutes straight on the phone.

Haruka waits very patiently until Sousuke regains his breath, before he deadpans, “Glad this is funny to you.”

Sousuke snorts. “It is. Serves him right for not telling me right away that he’s in Tokyo. I could’ve flown and crashed at your place for a few days, but no, he only told me once he’s arrived, sneaky basta—“

“I don’t have a spare futon,” Haruka says, the corner of his lips twitching up ever so-slightly, and Sousuke humphs because everyone knows it’s a lie. “And you’re in rehab session.”

“Exactly, I could’ve postponed.”

“I don’t accept guests.”

“Sure you don’t.” There’s a rustle somewhere in the background, and Haruka hears Sousuke grunt, before he gives a long exhale. “What did you tell them, then?”

Haruka pauses, considers everything once again, and says, “I have no choice.”

There’s a beginning of laughter in Sousuke’s voice. “You can’t very well out them in front of Makoto’s friends by saying that Makoto is actually dating Matsuoka Rin and not Matsuoka Gou.”

“I might have made the misunderstanding worse,” Haruka allows drily.

“Eh, it’s going to be fun,” Sousuke says, obviously in his asshole-mode, probably because he’s still pissed at Rin for not telling him that he’s visiting. “Let’s just sit back and watch.”

Haruka sighs. He shouldn’t have expected Sousuke to give a solution, really.

**\-----o0o-----**

And so, Makoto begins receiving weird stories from his friends.

“You know Tachibana,” Kuroda tells him on his first morning class. “I once dated my childhood friend’s sister, but he found out after two months. I just looked at him and asked him directly to let me date his sister. He punched me on the face. 

Makoto blinks. “O…kay?”

“I think the direct option is the best thing to do,” Kuroda nods to himself, and pats Makoto’s shoulder. “Good luck.”

**\-----o0o-----**

“I don’t know man, keeping a secret is hard, but you’ve gotta be very careful when you break it to someone important, right? Like your best friend?”

“Sure?” Makoto says, and Tanaka beams.

“Right? That’s what I thought. So like, when you want to tell your best friend that you’re dating—uhh, someone they might not like you to date, you gotta be very careful and break it to them veeeeery. Slooowwwly.”

“Yeah,” Makoto nods, understanding, because maybe Tanaka has something he needs to confess and is looking for reassurance on his actions. “That sounds like it’s best.”

“I know, right? You should totally think about it.” Tanaka grins, and slaps Makoto’s back lightly before vaulting over his chair and walks off.

“Ugh,” Yamamoto groans behind Makoto, disapprovingly. “Don’t listen to him, Tachibana. Sometimes it’s better for secrets to stay as secrets.”

“Okay?” Makoto says, unsure of what else to say because he has no idea what everyone is talking about. Did he miss something? “I’ll—take note of that.”

Yamamoto flashes him a grin and a thumb-up.

Makoto is just very confused.

** \------o0o----- **

He comes home to Haruka cooking in his kitchen, and Rin sitting bemused as the table is laden with what looks like meals fit for kings.

“What’s happening,” he asks, after Rin gives him a welcome kiss, and from the other side of the table, Gou makes a gagging noise. “Haru, why do you cook so much?”

He sees Haruka’s shoulders tense, a sure sign that something is bothering him. “I feel like cooking a lot.”

“He lies,” Rin whispers in mocking conspiratorial tone, and Makoto chuckles. “Ah well, since it’s rare to have Haru slaves in the kitchen for us, might as well enjoy it. I cooked yesterday, after all.”

“You just skewered meat and roast them,” Haruka calls out.

Rin bristles visibly, but there’s a twitch of smile on the corner of his lips. “I could cook better than you, Haru.”

Makoto laughs, bends down to rest his chin on top of Rin’s head, and listens to the familiar, much-missed banter between Rin and Haruka, deciding to let whatever it is that bothers Haruka for later. It’s nice, he thinks, to have both of them around, and he squeezes Rin’s hand to convey the sentiment.

Rin’s thumb runs over his knuckles, solid and reassuring and gentle, and Makoto smiles.

** \-----o0o----- **

Makoto decides to take Rin out to one of the nearby neighborhood shoping district’s autumn festival two nights before Rin has to go back to Australia. The night is cool and bright, stalls of food and games lining up the streets, delicious scents wafting around children’s laughter. It’s a small festival, one that’s held for the residents to come out of their homes and spend the night laughing and buying food together.

Rin wins him a cat plushie on the shooting game stall, and Makoto buys a candied apple they could share discreetly. They buy too many senbeis because the owner of the stall is a very lovely old lady who smiles at them and offers them to pet her cat. There aren’t too many people walking around, too, because it’s just a small neighborhood festival, but the scent of sake and laughter are thick in the air, and Rin’s fingers brush against Makoto’s every other step, the tips catching Makoto’s own for a fleeting moment before letting go, and Makoto can’t stop smiling.

They’re watching an eating competition in one of the stalls when the familiar voice of Kuroda reaches Makoto’s ear. “Oi, Tachibana!”

Makoto turns around, instantly beaming at his three friends before tugging Rin towards them. It’s as good time as any to introduce Rin to his friends properly. “Fancy seeing you guys here.”

“Got nothing to do, and we heard there’s a festival, so. Food!” Kuroda gestures to the stalls lined up, before turning back to Makoto. “So, not out with Matsuoka tonight?”

An awkward, confused silence falls upon them. Makoto blinks, because huh, don’t they know how Rin looks like? Isn’t Rin pretty popular, lately? Didn’t they say that they didn’t mind? “Uhhh?”

“I mean, sure, it’s a family festival, but it doesn’t mean you can’t walk around with your girlfriend.”

Silence. Long, long silence. Makoto opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again and closes it anyway because he isn’t sure what the hell is happening. And finally, he turns to Rin, blinking in confusion as he watches realization dawns on Rin’s face, and is rapidly turning red in a way that is not good, because this red means Rin is very, very angry.

“Makoto!!” Rin hisses, high-pitched and livid. “You were going out with MY sister?!!”

Makoto backpedals. “Uhh??? What—what?!”

“Oh shit,” says one of his friends—Makoto can’t really pay attention to who, because Rin is glaring at him the way he never does before, and it is scary as fuck. “The big brother didn’t know.”

Makoto’s head whips towards them. “Uuuhh???”

“We gave you advices!” Tanaka exclaims, eyes qide with guilt. “We thought you told him already!”

“You’re really going out with Gou?!” Rin’s voice rises, and Makoto flinches, eyes the way Rin draws his fists warily. “When I’m not here, you’re—you’re going out with MY sister, of all people?! Makoto, that is so fucking low, what the fuck?!”

“I’m not!” Makoto cries, panicked as they’re starting to draw some people’s eyes. “When—where did that even come from?! Gou-chan isn’t—“

“I let you walk her home!” Rin spits out, murderous. “I let you pick her up at the airport, I let you go with her anywhere at night, I fucking let her sleep over at yours, goddammit, Makoto, I trusted you!!”

“I didn’t do anything—wait, Rin, are you mad because I’m going out with her or is it because it’s _Gou_ I’m going out with—“

“SO YOU REALLY ARE GOING OUT WITH HER?!”

“That’s not what I meant!!” Makoto nearly shrills, half-terrified and half-desperate because he’s never seen Rin glare like this at anyone before and because Rin isn’t listening. “Rin, please—“

“Huh? Oniichan, I thought I heard your voice, what are you doing he—oh!“ And of course, it has to be Gou who is striding towards them, one of her girl friends trailing behind her. “Makoto-senpai! You guys didn’t tell me you were going to come down to the festival tonight. I would have gone with you.”

“Gou-chan!” Makoto exclaims, in the midst of his three friends’ surprised chorus of “Matsuoka!” and Rin’s very own furious “Gou, I didn’t know you and Makoto are dating!!!”

Gou stares. And stares. And stares.

And then says, “Ew. No offense, Makoto-senpai, but eeeww.”

Makoto isn’t sure if he should be offended, so he just weakly says, “It’s okay, Gou-chan?”

Rin’s expression twists into a very, very indignant one. “What do you mean _ew_ , Gou, _Makoto is a very fine specimen of male_!!”

“Who’s side are you on?!” Makoto facepalms.

“But,” Kuroda pipes up, looking so very confused. “Tachibana, you said the other day that you’re dating a Matsuoka.”

“Hey,” Gou frowns. “I am a very proud single lady.”

“Well,” Makoto says into his palm. “Yeah, I am dating a Matsuoka, but not Gou-chan!”

“Makoto!” Rin hisses, one hand tugging the edge of Makoto’s shirt in warning, and Makoto drops his hands from his face in time to see his three friends’ eyes going as wide as saucers.

“Uhh!” On the back of his mind, a voice that sounds a lot like Rin is swearing endlessly. Fuck, fuck, fuck,  _they didn’t know_ . “ I mean—“

“It’s our cousin!” Gou cuts in hastily, peals of nervous laughter underlining her voice. “Makoto-senpai is—is dating our cousin. Twice removed.  From my grandfather’s sister’s brother-in-law’s niece!”

Everyone stares at her mutely.

“She lives in Australia,” Gou adds rather weakly.

** \-----o0o----- **

“You didn’t ask,” Haruka says blandly the next time they all sit down to figure out what the fuck is going on. The fact that he’d actually gone so far as to get Sousuke on Skype to help defend himself (even if Sousuke isn’t helping much, mostly snickering and snorting in amusement at everyone’s plight, before finally confirms that Haruka did have no choice when he accidentally made the misunderstanding worse) kind of betrays how guilty he feels over the whole thing though, so Rin decides to forgive him.

“How did none of you guys figure out that the redhead they meant was me?” Gou groans. “Is this why most guys have been giving me a wide berth lately?”

“Maybe we should keep it that way,” Rin tells her, and earns himself a glare. “Seriously though, Haru, you could’ve told us.”

“I cooked for all of you,” Haruka says, sounding offended, and then Makoto just starts laughing and doesn’t stop.

“My boyfriend is broken,” Rin says, arms going around Makoto’s head to pull him down to his chest, huffing when Makoto just tries to muffle his laughter into Rin’s shirt with no avail. “Makoto, please breathe.”

“You are all a trainwreck,” Gou announces exasperatedly, and Rin just throws her a grin.

** \-----o0o----- **

Afterwards, Makoto is somehow known as the guy who dates Matsuoka Gou’s cousin-twice-removed who lives in Australia.

Makoto is fine with it. One day, sure, he’d like for everyone to know that he’s dating Rin—one of those amazing swimmers aspiring to compete in Olympics, whom he is very proud of, one of those he’d tell the kids about when he teaches them how to swim one day. But he isn’t sure he’d be ready for it now, or if Rin would be ready for it, so he just smiles when his friends rib him about his long-distance girlfriend who is Gou’s cousin, twice-removed. 

Additionally, he gets a lot of long-distance relationship advices, and that kind of proves helpful. Sometimes.

(But in the short years after Makoto graduates and part ways with his friends, Rin wins gold for butterfly in Olympics, his grin bright enough to rival the flashes of press cameras as he runs up to where Makoto stands and tugs him down for a kiss—a moment captured into thousands of print media and plastered on international television.

Somewhere in Japan, clustered in a small table in a corner of a quiet, very nice izakaya, Makoto’s three university friends stare at the TV, unblinking.

“Well,” Kuroda says. “That explains _so much_.”) 

**\-----o0o-----**

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry, just three things:  
> 1\. I don't care what you say everyone should love Ikuta Touma y/y?  
> 2\. Feel free to replace Evangelion with Sailor Moon, probably works just as well, idk.  
> 3\. ilu guys?


End file.
